Testing A Wiring Installation

Description

Testing A Wiring Installation

Where possible, two tests of the electric wiring equipment should be made, one after the wiring itself is entirely completed, and switches, cut-out panels, etc., are connected; and the second one after the fixtures have all been installed. The reason for this is that if a ground or short circuit is discovered before the fixtures are installed, it is more easily remedied; and secondly, because there is no division of the responsibility, as there might be if the first test were made only after the fixtures were Installed. If the test shows no grounds or short circuits before the fixtures are installed, and one does develop after they are installed, the trouble, of course, is that the short circuit or ground is one or more of the fixtures. As a matter of fact, it is a wise plan always to make a separate test of each fixture, after it is delivered at the building and before it is installed.

While a magneto is largely used for the purpose of testing, it is at best a crude and unreliable method. In the first place, it does nut give an indication, even approximately, of the total insulation resistance, hut merely indicates whether there is a ground or short circuit, or not. In some instances, moreover, a magneto test has led to serious errors, for reasons that will be explained. If, as is nearly always the case, the magneto is an alternating-current instrument, it may sometimes happen - particularly in long cables, and especially where there is a lead sheathing on the cable - that the magneto will ring, indicating to the uninitiated that there is a ground or short circuit on the cable. This may be, and usually is, far from being the case; and the cause of the ringing of the magneto is not a ground or short circuit, but is due to the capacity of the cable, which acts as a condenser under certain conditions, since the magneto producing an alternating current repeatedly charges and discharges the cable in opposite directions, this changing of the current causing the magneto to ring. Of course, this defect in a magneto could be remedied by using a commutator and changing it to a direct-current machine; but as the method is faulty in itself, it is hardly worth while to do this.

A portable galvanometer with a resistance box and Wheatstone bridge, is sometimes employed; but this method is objectionable because it requires a special instrument which cannot be used for many other purposes. Furthermore, it requires more skill and time to use than the voltmeter method, which will now be described.

The advantage of the voltmeter method is that it requires merely a direct-current voltmeter, which can be used for many other purposes, and which all engineers or contractors should possess, together with a box of cells having a potential of preferably over 30 volts. The voltmeter should have a scale of not over 150 volts, for the reason that if the scale on which the battery is used covers too wide a range (say 1,000 volts) the readings might be so small as to make the test inaccurate. A good arrangement would be to have a voltmeter having two scales - say, one of 60 and one of 600 - which would make the voltmeter available for all practical potentials that are likely to be used inside of a building. If desired, a voltmeter could be obtained with three connections having three scales, the lowest scale of which would be used for testing insulation resistances.

Before starting a test, all of the fuses should be inserted and switches turned on, so that the complete test of the entire installation can be made. When this has been done, the voltmeter and battery should be connected, so as to obtain on the lowest scale of the voltmeter the electromotive force of the entire group of cells. This connection is shown in Fig. 33. Immediately after this has been done, the insulation resistance to be tested is placed in circuit, whether the insulation to be tested is a switchboard, slate panel-board, or the entire wiring installation; and the connections are made as shown in Fig. 34. A reading should then again be taken of the voltmeter; and the leakage is in proportion to the difference between the first and second readings of the voltmeter. The explanation given below will show how this resistance may be calculated: It is evident that the resistance in the first case was merely the resistance of the voltmeter and the internal resistance of the battery. As a rule, the internal resistance of the battery is so small in comparison with the resistance of the voltmeter and the external resistance, that it may be entirely neglected, and this will be done in the following calculation. In the second case, however, the total resistance in circuits is the resistance of the voltmeter and the battery, plus the entire insulation resistance on all the wires, etc., connected in circuit.

To put this in mathematical form, the voltage of the cells may be indicated by the letter E; and the reading of the voltmeter when the insulation resistance is connected by the circuit, by the letter E'. Let R represent the resistance of the voltmeter and Rx represent the insulation resistance of the installation which we wish to measure.

It is a fact which the reader undoubtedly knows, that the E.M. F. as indicated by the voltmeter in Fig. 34 is inversely proportional to the resistance: that is, the greater the resistance, the lower will be the reading on the voltmeter, as this reading indicates the leakage or current passing through the resistance. Putting this in the shape of a formula, we have from the theory of proportion:

E : E' :: R + Rx : R ; or,

E' R + E' R2x - E R.

Transposing,

E' Rx = E R - E ' R = R (E - E'), and Rx = R (E - E').

E'

Or, expressed in words, the insulation resistance is equal to the resistance of the voltmeter multiplied by the difference between the first reading (or the voltage in the cells) and the second reading (or the reading of the voltmeter with the insulation resistance in series with the voltmeter), divided by this last reading of the voltmeter.

Example. Assume a resistance of a voltmeter (R) of 20,000 ohms, and a voltage of the cells (E) of 30 volts; and suppose that the insulation resistance test of a wiring installation, including switchboard, feeders, branch circuits, panel-boards, etc., is to be made, the insulation resistance being represented by the letter Rx. By substituting in the formula

Rx = R(E - E') .

E' and assuming that the reading of the voltmeter with the insulation resistance connected is 5, we have:

R = 20,000 X (30 - 5) = 100,000 ohms.

If the test shows an excessive amount of leakage, or a ground or short circuit, the location of the trouble may be determined by the process of elimination - that is, by cutting out the various feeders until the ground or leakage disappears, and, when the feeder on which the trouble exists has been located, by following the same process with the branch circuits.

Fig. 34. Insulation Resistance Placed in Circuit, Ready for Testing.

Of course, the larger the installation and the longer and more numerous the circuits, the greater the leakage will be; and the lower will be the insulation resistance, as there is a greater surface exposed for leakage. The Rules of the National Electric Code give a sliding scale for the requirements as to insulation resistance, depending upon the amount of current carried by the various feeders, branch circuits, etc. The rule of the National Electric Code (No. 66) covering this point, is as follows:

"The wiring in any building must test free from grounds; i. e., the complete installation must have an insulation between conductors and between all conductors and the ground (not including attachments, sockets, receptacles, etc.) not less than that given in the following table:

Up to 5 amperes ......

4,000,000 ohms

" 10 " ....

2,000,000 "

" 25 " .......

800,000 "

" 50 " ........

400,000 "

" 100 " .......

200,000 "

" 200 " ....

100,000 "

" 400 " ....

50,000 "

" 800 " .......

25,000 "

" 1.600 " ....

12,500 "

"The test must be made with all cut-outs and safety devices in place. If the lamp sockets, receptacles, electroliers, etc., are also connected, only one-half of the resistances specified in the table will be required."